Wolverine Uses His Hot Claws

Wolverine just used his new superpower for the first time.

SPOILERS for Return of Wolverine #2 by Charles Soule, Declan Shalvey, and Laura Martin follow.

In Return of Wolverine, Wolverine woke up with no memory in a cave laboratory. He leaves and discovers an encampment being razed by soldiers employed by the group called Soteira. He heads to the encampment and fights some of the soldiers, one of whom is apparently Omega Red beneath the uniform, but a bullet to the skull puts him down for a while.

When he wakes up, he meets a woman named Ana from the encampment who says everyone there was forced to work for Soteira. She tells Logan that they took her son and she encourages Wolverine to remember the man that he was so that he can track down her son down.

Wolverine suits up in his new costume and follows Ana to a boat. They pursue her son’s captors. They’re heading for a city owned by Soteira and Wolverine wonders if they’re using the boy as an incubator for some kind of weapon. His thoughts are interrupted when two Soteira soldiers leap to the boat and attack.

One of them is Omega Red, but Ana knocks him into the ocean with a harpoon. The other appears to be Logan’s son, Daken, though Wolverine he has no memory of his child. They fight and Daken seems to be getting the upper hand until Wolverine sees a brutal, berserker version of himself in the prison in the mind. As he sees this version of himself, his claws begin to heat up. He then uses the hot claws to ignite fuel from the boat’s engine and burn Daken.

Wolverine nearly attacks Ana before he manages to get the brutal side of his psyche back under control, suggesting his hot claws are somehow related to his state of mind.

Soule teased this new power manifesting when Return of Wolverine was first announced.

“Wolverine’s body has been missing. The entire Marvel Universe has been looking for him, because he’s a very important part of the Super Hero puzzle. And at long last, he will be found,” Soule tells Marvel.com. “I thought this was a real opportunity to do things that would make him feel new and fresh in a way; if you come back from the dead, it should mean something. One of the outwardly physical manifestations of that is that now, from time to time, his claws—once they’re popped—they can heat up. They can get really hot.”

What do you think of Logan’s new power? Let us know in the comments!

Return of Wolverine #2 is now on sale.